The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-05

Lnan on Ine human utViD1ty or our great
spiritual Ancestor, it is because we are
trying to put the emphasis where he put
it. In short, our UNCONVENTIONAL polity
is too young to have exhibited many
practical defects. We have partly over
come that sturdy individualism which re-
jected all organization; but so long as the
walls of our edifice are growing into fair
proportions, on secure foundations, we
are in no hurry to "roof in" and shut out
the light.
Turning now to the points which the
writer makes we find that his ''confes-
sions' embrace the following particulars:
~ Universalism has suffered from the
''hammerers Of carbohydrates who
are described as "a kind of doctrinal
''prize-fghters, who wanted to win and
"wear the champion belt of contro-
"versy." ~ We have suffered, and in
the opinion of the writer, suffer still,
"from the presence of class Of easy
"going optimists," who have nOt1yet
grasped the central law of Univer-
salism and are not working out their
own salvation. ~ A disposition on the
part of some of our adherents ito dis
Join themselves from historical Christ
''ianity." az Expecting "a universal
conquest for partial faith" the evil
denee thereof is that we have no Foreign
Missions. (5) A certain intolerance in
our ranks, refusing to do such and
''such things because the orthodox do
chem" (6) We also suffer from ''a
genuine old-fashioned conservatism"
and (7) I'm the work of Christian cul-
"ture we suffer through vagueness of
lain and incomplete and ineffective
methods" These are the specifica-
lions made in these Confessions of a
Universalist, and presented in sharp
and trenchant style, as BELTS the Forum
confessional.
What shall be said of these specifica-
tions of the weaknesses and defects of
Universalism ? This: in the main they
only put in concise and somewhat ag-
gravated form-a form also meant pos
sibly to be aggravating some Of the
conclusions which have been stated and
made familiar in our own analysis
Of defects and shortcomings, time and
again. Therefore, they are not in the line
of new revelations. 1t is to be noticed
that in the attempt to mark out new
line of complaint against Universalism,
our brother at the confessional can
originate no special weakness or defect
of our denomination that has not been
already outlined and well considered
1t did not fall within the purpose of
his paper to present what might be
said on the other side in the particulars
in which he brings the denomination
into court. For example, in regard to
the controversial era in our history, it
is undoubtedly true that we have had
those who were anxious to win and wear
''the champion belt'' in controversy,
and whose pugnacious attitude is we'll
described in his article. But certainly
the writer will not declare that all who
in the past did valiant service in this
field were animated by unworthy mo-
tives, nor that what has been accom-
plished through the instrumentality of
our debaters, has been lost on the de-
These "bammerers OF or
were the sappers and miners
of the advancing Universalist army !;
they prepared the field for the contest
which is not yet ended, and as for ham
mering orthodoxy" that work is yet
going on under new conditions, and no
doubt the writer of the Forum article
gets in his little work occasionally.
We should hesitate to use the figure
which the writer adopts to describe the
"easy going optimism" of many Uni
versalists, passage which We do not
even quote-but surely there has been
no remissnessin our teaching during the
last quarter of century in this direc-
ton. The spiritual inertia developed
in any theory of UniversaIism which
assumes that God is to do all the work
of salvation, that repudiates what the
writer styles the central law of Uni
versalism," has been definitely discour-
aged, and the emphasis in our preach
ing and writing placed where it justly
belongs. If this optimism" has been a
weakness of our past, it is a weakness
that has been acknowledged, and the
moral sufficiently drawn. That it af-
flicts our church at the present day, in
any influential quarter, is questionable.
If not entirely outgrown, it is suffi-
GENTLY in the distance to be no longer
regarded as an obstacle in the way of
our progress. All the same, the writer
in the Forum INDUCES in a caricature
Of this optimism" which, while quite
smart" is not creditable to his intelli-
gence or good taste.
The several other points in these
Confessions invite extended remark,
but we cannot give them attention at
The present time. We may submit,
however, that to "disjoin Universalism
from historical Christianity is some